The present disclosure generally relates to a system or method for inspecting a structure to estimate the condition of the structure. After an accident or loss, property owners typically file claims with their insurance companies. In response to these claims, the insurance companies assign an appraiser to investigate the claims to determine the extent of damage and/or loss, document the damage, and provide its clients with appropriate compensation.
Determining and documenting the extent of damage can be risky for the appraiser. For example, in a situation where a structure has experienced roof damage, appraisers typically climb onto the roof to evaluate the damage. Once on the roof they may sketch the damaged area of the roof to document the damage. Alternatively, appraisers might take a digital picture of the damaged area. In either scenario, the appraiser has exposed himself to a risk of falling. Afterwards, the picture is typically attached to an electronic claim file for future reference where it can be analyzed by an appraiser to estimate the extent of damage to the structure.
The process for determining and documenting the extent of the damage can be inefficient and time consuming. In addition to the time required to drive to and from the incident site and to perform the inspection itself, significant paperwork and calculations may be involved in calculating compensation owed to the clients. For example, after taking pictures of a roof, the appraiser may have to come back to his office, research the client's property, research the cost of the damaged property and research repair costs to calculate how much money a client should be paid. All of these steps are time consuming and both delay payment to the client and prevent the appraiser from assessing other client claims.
In situations where the insurance company has received a large number of claims in a short time period (e.g., when a town is affected by a hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster), an insurance appraiser may not have time to perform a timely claim investigation of all the received claims. If claim investigations are not performed quickly, property owners may not receive recovery for their losses for long periods of time. Additionally, long time delays when performing claim investigations can lead to inaccurate investigations results (e.g., the delay may lead to increased opportunity for fraud and/or may make it more difficult to ascertain the extent of damage at the time of the accident or loss).
Further, two-dimensional digital pictures or video of a roof or structure often provide inadequate detail for thorough inspection of a structure. Poor image quality resulting from camera movement or out-of-focus images can make it difficult to estimate the condition of a property based on an image. Even where image quality is adequate, poor angles or bad lighting may hide or exaggerate details important to estimating the condition of the structure, leading to inaccurate assessments of the structure's condition. In addition, two-dimensional pictures or video also fail to provide any detail about a subsurface of the roof or structure.
Still further, three-dimensional imaging of a roof or structure, such as laser scanning and ultrasonic scanning, also often provides inadequate detail for a thorough inspection of a structure. While three-dimensional imaging can provide some detail about a subsurface of a roof, for example, three-dimensional imaging is often compromised and inaccurate due to interfering sunlight during the scan on the roof or other structure. In addition, ultrasonic scanning typically requires a jelly-like sound conductor for an adequate scan and problems with proper application and removal of the jelly-like substance make three-dimensional ultrasonic scanning more time consuming, messy, and costly.